Pumping stations are used to drain storm waters from low lying land areas contained within a protective levee system and deposit those storm waters into lakes, bays, reservoirs, rivers, etc. outside of the protected levee system. Those waters outside of the levee protection system are usually subject to tidal fluctuations as well as storm surges. Most existing pumping stations in low elevation areas, especially in costal lands, rely on storm water being collected and transported via canals and/or waterways at or below sea levels and ground elevations with many such canals lined with elevated levees and/or floodwalls extending above ground level elevations. Under normal conditions, these type pumping stations rely on suction pumps to lift the accumulated storm waters and discharge said waters into the waterways outside of the protection levees.
The existing system/pumping stations are limited in their performance when abnormal amounts of storm waters are deposited for collection, removal/transferring to regions outside of the levee protection system, and when those regions themselves are inundated with high water levels due to high tides and wind driven surges resulting in backflow at the discharge outlet of the pumping/piping when rendered below workable sea level conditions.
Existing pumping stations usually have the discharge pipe outlets at or slightly above average sea level of the body receiving the discharge. So, when a high tide conditions prevail outside the protected levee system, especially when aggravated by storm surges with heavy rains and wind, the capability of the pumping process is diminished by the tide/surge and in severe conditions, pumping ceases.
Conventional methods of handling peak storm water flows rely on the use of storage basins to prevent localized flooding, especially in managing the run-off from disturbed areas into watersheds. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,052,206 to Mastromonoco teaches the use of a detention basin and a treatment basin with a bypass conduit to control peak storm water flows. Such systems intrinsically rely on gravity driven flow and are intended to slow the flow rates rather than increase them.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,662 discloses a water quality management system for exchanging water between two bodies of water at least partially separated by a barrier and including a series of dispersed pumps, each of which is connected to a water passage means extending through the barrier between the first and second body of water. The purpose of the system is to enhance the natural exchange of water between the two bodies in an effort to manage the water quality of the first body for marine life to flourish. This involves either pumping water from the second body into the first body or vice versa. That is, it is reversibly exchanging water between two bodies, but not primarily disposing of water from one body, and thereby lowering the water level of that body, and depositing in another. In one embodiment the pump is located on the land area of the barrier and thus is configured similar to a conventional pumping station used for removing storm waters. However this patent does not address situations or provide a solution for operation when the second body of water is experiencing storm surges.